


Take My Hand

by rainbowcowboy



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Autistic Gonta Gokuhara, Emotional Manipulation, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Strangers to Lovers, Synesthesia, kiyo is synesthetic ok, warning for depictions of abuse in chapter one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22250797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowcowboy/pseuds/rainbowcowboy
Summary: ‘ Ah, that’s Gonta’s name- Gonta Gokuhara! ‘Soulmates AU where the first words one’s soulmate speaks to them appear as a mark on their arm.
Relationships: Gokuhara Gonta/Shinguji Korekiyo
Comments: 41
Kudos: 279





	1. Past I

_ Ah, that’s Gonta’s name- Gonta Gokuhara! _

Those words had haunted Korekiyo since day he’d turned nine, when they’d first shown up on his skin. A brand on his forearm, marking his belonging to someone else like a steer to a rancher.

To so many other children, the appearance of their soul mark, the first words their soul mate would ever speak to them, would be a happy time. It was shown in the movies and in stories; every culture was filled with tales of fated love foretold in those words inked on each lucky boy’s and girl’s skin. 

Fate was not on the side of the Shinguji siblings. 

Korekiyo’s own sister was born with a blotchy birthmark over her right arm. As she grew, she blamed it for her lack of a soul mark.  _ Anywhere else,  _ he’d heard her angrily sob one night, when he was too young to remember his age.  _ Could it be anywhere else? _

Two years later, and she decided that in the absence of her soulmate, she’d simply make her own. However, that solution provided its own issues: who would fill the space of her beloved partner? Would it be her doting nurse, who had been caring for her in this spell of sickness? What about her tutor? Or, could it be, the kind boy in the next hospital room over?

Too risky, too old, too sick. She went through her options in that calculating mind of hers, and finally settled on a partner who would never leave her, never hurt her.

Korekiyo remembered when he was six-and-a-half and his sister was ten. Each day, after school, he’d run home as fast as he could, nearly dropping his book bag and stumbling over his shoelaces. He’d drop off his bag and shrug off his uniform jacket, then hop on his bike and ride into town. 

His sister would wait for him, in the same hospital room as always. He’d run to her arms as long as it was safe, and stay until the doctors would force him to go home. 

One day, he came in speckled with raindrops. He was young, and thin, and the cold winds had worked their way into his bones on the way to the hospital, but within building was warm and static. As welcoming as a hospital could make itself. 

His sister’s condition had been improving; today, she was sitting up in bed, framed in the watery light pooling under her window. Her hands rested delicately on the page of a book Korekiyo had brought her. 

She always looked so much older on rainy days. 

“Kiyo,” she’d murmured without looking up. “Will you come here?”

Beside her bed was not enough. 

“Lay here with me, please.”

Kiyo, despite his youth, sensed something was wrong. 

“Is that safe..? You need to-”

“Korekiyo.” 

It was that authoritative voice she’d use sometimes, when he wasn’t doing what she wanted. It scared him. He didn’t want to hear it again.

Once he was laid next to her, with his head nestled on her shoulder, she relaxed. “ Kiyo,” she said again. 

“What is it?”

“Do you know your soulmate?” What an odd thing to ask a six-and-a-half year old. Korekiyo frowned.

“No..?”

“Well, I do.”

“Huh?”

She grinned, teeth glittering but eyes not betraying a single feeling. “I know your soulmate,” she repeated. Her smile looked like a serpent's mouth. 

Kiyo sat up and looked at her in disbelief. “Well, then who is it?”

“Me, of course. Don’t be silly!”

And then she ruffled Korekiyo’s hair and smiled, like she hadn’t just spoken those words. Kiyo lay there for a moment, in her skeleton-pale arms. 

He questioned, “How do you know?” 

“Because neither of us have soul marks. It’s obvious, Kiyo. I’m the only one that’ll love you, and you’re the only one for me,” she responded so casually. 

The longer Korekiyo thought about it, the more odd sense it made. Most of his classmates had begun to see the faintest of words in their arms, as they and their soulmates had started the long process of understanding their own identity, But Korekiyo had not. He understood himself very well. He doubted his soulmate wouldn’t. So perhaps, a telling sign of his soulmate wasn’t his mark, but his lack of one, and his soulmate was-

His sister interrupted his thoughts with her softly moulding words. “Go on home, Kiyo. Give me a kiss before you leave.”

And because he was a good soulmate, he did his best. 

Korekiyo remembered when he was newly eight and his sister was nearly eleven. He had done his best to be a good soulmate. He’d done everything she’d wanted from him: grew his hair just the way she liked, read the books she wanted him to, held himself in the manner she decided respectable. 

Even if he didn’t want to give himself up like this, he had no choice. Sister made sure he hear the truth every night. 

_ I’m the only girl who’ll ever love you like this, Kiyo. Not even Mother could adore you like I do. I’m certain of it, Kiyo; no one you’ve ever met has felt love for you like I feel. I’m sure, too, that you won’t meet anyone in the future, either. You are mine and mine only to admire. _

She was a good sister. She kissed and hugged him. She pet his head as she read him myths as bedtime stories. She wouldn’t lie, would she? And certainly, Kiyo’s knowledge of her love would never waver. 

Until another dreary November day, after school on a wednesday, when she quietly entered Korekiyo’s room without knocking, which meant he was in trouble. 

He turned to face her. She had been healthy for over a month now, but her face looked old and sick.

“Korekiyo Shinguji,” she growled in her commanding voice. Her expression was even, but her tone betrayed her fury.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” he swallowed, not even sure what to be scared of.

“You  _ know _ what’s wrong.” He didn’t.

“I- what?”

“You’re being an awful soulmate. I thought I could love you.”

Her words stung, and Korekiyo’s stomach wrenched. He was pretty sure he knew- no, he knew. It was that boy that had waved to him as he left school, and how he’d blushed as he waved back. She’d been watching, of course she had been.

“I didn’t mean it like that, you know that-”

“Then show me your arm.”

Korekiyo flinched at her strong tone. Had he really betrayed her trust that deeply? What an awful soulmate he was. With a dry gulp, he pushed up his sleeve and showed his pale, blank arm to his sister. His skin was thin. He watched his sister trace up and down the blue veins underneath with her cold, quiet eyes. 

“Thank you, Kiyo. You need to be more careful, or I’m going to get mad at you again,” she scolded in a tired voice. Kiyo stood up from his chair and kissed her cheek, and she left without doing anything else.

Korekiyo remembered when he was nine, and his sister had just turned twelve. She held his hand when they went into town and to the market, and kissed him when they got home. When she was hospitalized, Korekiyo brought her books and knitting needles and thread. She took up the hobby of providing clothes for Korekiyo the way he liked them (although she had imposed her tastes so greatly onto Korekiyo that they valued nearly identical things).

He was changing into pajamas one night, when he noticed a flash of something on his skin. He figured it was ink, so he looked closer to see if he’d spilled his pen, and-

_ Ah, that’s Gonta’s name- Gonta Gokuhara! _

All his classmates had watched over the years as their soul marks slowly darkened into their skin, like paint drying on a great work of art. Korekiyo knew no one who saw their soul mark appear overnight, like their soulmate had just learned their own name. 

The oddity of his situation was not what concerned him. 

His sister was due to be released from the hospital in two days. 

In her absence, Korekiyo had done the worst thing imaginable. He cheated on his sister, his soulmate, his only lover- 

She was going to be so mad. 

Korekiyo found a desperate solution in an old roll of bandages. He covered every inch of his arms that were exposed under his sleeves, and then some. At school the next day, he told curious students he had accidentally fallen hands-first into a pot of boiling water, and not only were they sensitive to infection, but that the burns had made his hands gross and ugly. The latter statement wasn’t even much of a fallacy.

The next day, his sister returned, and he offered the same story, which she seemed to accept. He didn’t shower and only changed what clothes he absolutely had to, dreading the bandages may come off, and he’d have to see those wretched words etched into his skin. 

He watched as his sister grew more and more suspicious. Four days after her return, she entered his room without knocking and came up behind him. Her hands were cold like a corpse on his shoulders.

“Kiyo, would you please let me look at your hands? I’m worried. You haven’t changed the bandages once.”

Korekiyo jerked away from her, frantically putting his small hands under the desk. “N-no!” He nervously stammered, “They hurt a lot! It’s fine, I promise!”

His sister slid her icy hands down Korekiyo’s shoulders, and to his arms. He tried to squirm away from her, but she squeezed his arms so tight it hurt. He froze. 

“If you’re in pain, you aren’t fine. You need to let me look at it. Right now.” Her scary voice was back, and right by his ear. He forced down a frightened whimper, then raised his hands up in surrender. 

She turned his chair around, so he was facing her, and took Korekiyo’s trembling hands in her cold ones. Her skeleton fingers found the edge of the bandages on his left arm and pulled them free. 

His left arm was not burned. 

His sister walked her fingers up his exposed wrist and forearm, pushing up the sleeve of his shirt. It revealed nothing but smooth, clammy skin.

She moved on to his right arm, loosening the bandages and letting them fall away. 

His right arm was not burned.

As her fingers traced upwards, they left a freezing, petrifying trail. Korekiyo shivered as she worked, until suddenly a flash of white pain splintered up from his arm. 

His sister was not his soulmate. She was touching his soul mark. It burned. 

Korekiyo wrenched his hand away, which alleviated the burning pain for a moment. He looked up at his sister pitifully. She had seen a few letters. She stood above him, looking down at him with disgust. 

“ _ Show me _ , Korekiyo.” The anger in her voice was barely restrained. 

He whimpered softly and curled in on himself. His bare hands clung to his sides. “ It hurts.. please, I-  _!! _ ”

His sister slapped his face, hard. He yelped and his right hand came up to shelter himself, and his sister grabbed his wrist tightly. 

“Korekiyo Shinguji, you-”

“NO-!” Her furthest finger had touched his mark again, and he ripped his hand away. On shaky legs he stood and tried to get away, get to  _ anywhere-  _ the door was closed, and his room was small. 

His sister was frail, and delicate, but taller than Korekiyo, and with the power of confidence on her side. She cornered him against the wall adjacent to his bed, and hurt him somehow- he didn’t want to remember. 

He gasped and slumped to the ground, curling into a defensive ball. His sister tilted his head up to look at her, and he weakly held out his hand again. It trembled as she read the words etched into his skin. 

She read the phrase again and again, then dropped Korekiyo’s hand and left the room. 

He wasn’t sure when, but eventually he dragged himself to his bed and curled up and slept. 

Korekiyo remembered when he was twelve and his sister was fourteen-and-three-quarters. The bandages had become a permanent component of his wardrobe, per his sister’s orders. She didn’t want to see his mark ever again, and neither did he.

It was a dreary March night when he was applying fresh bandages- he hated getting them dirty- when he felt a presence outside his door. He could see the shadow of someone standing outside, but they didn’t move until his hands were tightly wrapped again and he had set the roll of bandages down.

His sister walked in, looking not angry, but determined. Korekiyo swallowed as she walked to him and sat beside him on his bed. Her hands trembled like shaking leaves.

“I’m dying,” she said, with an unreadable tone. She took Korekiyo’s face in her spider fingers, then moved them back to twist into his hair. She pulled his face to hers, and kissed him in a way that he’d never felt. It made him feel sick. His right forearm burned.

His sister was not his soulmate, but by now, he was used to pretending that she was. 

He let her kiss him, as much as it hurt. He knew if he pulled away, he’d just get in trouble and get hurt more, anyways. Slowly, his tongue was pried out of his mouth, and he couldn’t help but wonder is the feeling was supposed to be more romantic, more sensual.

When she left, he slipped into the bathroom and washed out his mouth. He didn’t want to get sick. 

Korekiyo remembered when he was thirteen-and-one-third and his sister was dead. Though he tried hard, he couldn’t bring himself to cry for her. Instead, two weeks after her passing, while he was packing his bags to travel across the country and study anthropology, his dream she’d held him back from, he truly  _ read  _ his soul mark for the first time in four years.


	2. Discovering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i will write all my characters as implied synesthetes and you CANT stop me

Korekiyo got his letter of acceptance to Hope’s Peak High on May 25. In his travels, he supposed, word of his studies and findings had gotten around. He was reluctant to settle down at a school, but he supposed it could be worse. It wasn’t like he was going to turn down an education which was essentially a guarantee for success, anyways.

One night, when he was up later that he should have been, tucked comfortably into his hotel bed and messing around online, he stumbled across a forum dedicated to the discussion of Hope's Peak students. Within a few minutes of scrolling, he found a thread dedicated to him- more specifically, figuring out who he was, exactly. It made sense, as supposed. Many other ultimate students were sports stars or idols; he was a wandering anthropologist whose name wasn’t know outside his niche scientific circles.

One comment on the discussion read:  _ Didn’t he publish that one paper on folklore in modern media?  _

Another:  _ No that wasnt him  _

Another:  _ Here’s the only pic I could find,  _ with a surprisingly recent picture of him on the site of a buried Grecian village. 

Commented under that picture:  _ he looks freaky lmao _

He scrolled past mentions of his appearance, his education, or his travels, until he found an actually informative comment.

_ Most of the scientific ultimates in this class are pretty unknown, especially when they’re overshadowed by all the superstars and whatnot. You all love talking about Miu Iruma, but I bet you didn’t know her name until you went on this forum. The only guy you’ve probably heard of is Gonta Gokuhara, and even then it’s probably not for his entomology work.  _

Korekiyo’s forearm twinged, but it didn’t hurt.  _ Gonta Gokuhara.  _ He looked at his arm, where his bandages were hanging loose. He supposed he didn’t need to wear them anymore, but he liked the comfort of having covered arms (especially in areas with lots of mosquitoes). Additionally, he’d worn them for so long his arms were nearly two tones lighter than the rest of his body, which was unsightly. 

He looked closely. A bit of his mark peeked out from under the fabric.

_ at’s Go name t okuhara! _

He turned his attention back to his laptop, and returned to the main page of the forum. He scrolled a bit farther, before finding a thread titled:  _ Anyone have info on Gonta Gokuhara?  _

The first and longest comment read:  _ He’s the ultimate entomologist, and deservingly so. No one knows him for that though. There was a story seven years ago or something about a feral child that had been raised by wolves. That kid was him- he’s some sort of prodigy, though, and learned basic language before he went feral or whatever the term is, so he was able to make an almost full recovery. Still talks weird, in third person I think, but he’s obviously really smart. He’s discovered like twenty new species of bugs already.  _

As Korekiyo read, he pulled away his bandages, revealing his full mark. He’d always figured that he’d be asking the soulmate for someone’s name, or something like that, but… Gonta Gokuhara, the ultimate entomologist, spoke about himself in third person. Did that mean..?

_ Ah, that’s Gonta’s name- Gonta Gokuhara! _

Did Korekiyo already know the full name of his soulmate? 

And suddenly there was that feeling again. That twinge, that flutter of golden yellow that started in his core and worked its way out. The color left him buzzing in its wake. His heart beat fast, and his breathing felt faint. It was baffling, how just this bit of information could make him so flustered. 

Korekiyo nearly scrolled down further on the thread, wanting to learn more about this entomologist, but stopped himself. He felt like someone was holding his wrists, squeezing them until they bruised. A chilly sense of wrongness settled thick over him like a layer of snow.

He’d always knew inside that he’d been attracted to men; it’s just that he’d forced it down for so long he didn’t even know if he felt attraction to _anyone_ anymore. Maybe seeing a picture of Gonta would spark attraction, but then, wouldn’t that ruin the magic of it? Seeing your soulmate before they see you? Knowing the secret to your mark early? 

Maybe … maybe he was scared.

His sister was very much dead, and he did not mourn for her. But despite his efforts to forget, she was forever burned into his mind like an ugly cattle brand. Labeling him traumatized, ugly, incapable of connection the way others sought. He was confident, sure, and quite secure in his abilities, but he knew  _ somewhere _ inside him there was something off kilter-- a button in his mind that just didn’t latch. A lever always stuck on one setting, the handle being broken off by  _ her. _

He was so free, yet never had he felt so trapped.

Once again his eyes flicked over that name on his screen.  _ Gonta Gokuhara.  _ It he read it again and again, letting the name fill him with butterflies and push his sister out. Yellow to drown out grey. 

Maybe finding his true soulmate wouldn't be that bad. 

If anything, at least he was much more excited to attend Hope’s Peak Academy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apologies for any errors !! i swear i can write well my brain just ^}+]^{+*{{ sometimes


	3. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hello

Orientation passed in a blur, as did the next couple of days the students were offered to settle into their dorms. Korekiyo found himself utterly fascinated by everyone in attendance at the academy. People from across every culture, occupation, talent; it was a goldmine for study. The halls were so busy that no one even noticed him staring.

Remarkable things he observed were:

  * His neighbor was Byakuya Togami, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, who seemed haughty and confident, save for the tear-filled arguments he shared with his father over the phone that Korekiyo sometimes overheard when he passed by the heir’s door.
  * His other neighbor was Nekomaru Nidai, the Ultimate Team Manager, who was very tall and very muscular and carried with him the intense scent of aerosol deodorant.
  * On days without classes, the most activity was from 9:25 to 11:00 am, with the most activity on the first floor ( as to class days, he wasn’t sure yet).
  * The presence of “alternative” culture was strong amidst the students, to Korekiyo’s delight.
  * One man he noticed in passing had hamsters peeking out of his scarf. This wasn’t the most important thing he observed, but it made him laugh when he thought of it nonetheless.



One especially peculiar thing Korekiyo noticed was not about his peers, but about himself; he felt inexplicably in need of new clothes. He had never worried about it before, but he hadn’t been in an environment with so many people of his own age in a long time. There were many more anthropologists he knew that were much more eccentric than he. 

Of course, the students of Hope’s Peak Academy were very eccentric; they were just eccentric in such a well put together way. 

Though he didn’t want to admit it, the thought of meeting his soulmate was affecting him as well. He didn’t want to look anything less than his best for their first impressions of each other. 

However it’d be wrong to lie, and his truthful appearance was worn down boots and rusty chains. 

Monday marked the start of classes, and he pushed away his doubts of his appearance that morning. What point was there in worry? His imperfections would just bring out what looked good, anyways; like his hair, which he’d laboriously brushed sleek and tied in a low ponytail. Or his fingers, which he’d left unwrapped from his bandages, and his nails, freshly painted crimson. 

His classroom, 3-B, was populating with students when he arrived. He found a desk and sat quietly, waiting for the bell to ring.

Time went on and more students filed into the classroom. It was reassuring that no one wore the uniforms that had been given to them. Korekiyo hadn’t glanced at it since orientation, and worried about being the only one out of uniform. He recognized a few of his classmates as people he’d seen in the halls, but took the time to look at them much closer.

His focus drifted mostly to the men; or, should he say, those most likely to be his soulmate. His eyes were drawn to a tired eyed, green-haired man sitting backwards in a chair, arms propped up on the backrest and legs straddled around it. He was caught up in conversation with a pleasantly round, kind looking blonde girl. He was pretty, certainly, his eyes had a certain softness to them that made Korekiyo want to hug him, but did he look like an entomologist? Korekiyo wasn’t sure. What did an entomologist even look like?

Soon enough, his gaze fell upon someone else; he wore a crisp, freshly ironed uniform, navy and striped, and a matching colored baseball cap pulled over his eyes. He seemed nervous. Korekiyo cursed himself for not looking up a picture of Gonta while he had the chance. 

Gonta… some of his peers were talking amongst themselves while they waited for class to start, so perhaps they already had gotten to know each other. Perhaps, they knew who Gonta was, and if he was even in classroom 3-B.

He tapped a light blue-uniformed woman on the shoulder, and she spun to glare at him. “What?”

Korekiyo barely reacted to her hostility, which appeared to make her a bit more upset. Her bright green bow contrasted with her angry expression. 

“Do you know someone named Gonta Gokuhara?” he asked.

“Is he a boy?” she spat back.

“I should think so.”

“Then I don’t care,” she snapped, and turned right back around. 

The next person Korekiyo approached was short, and he had shifty eyes and unkempt, purple hair. He giggled when he responded to Korekiyo’s question, “Why’re you looking for him?”

Korekiyo tore his eyes away from the dizzying checker pattern on the man’s bandana, and sighed, “You don’t know, then.”

“Nope! But, you could try asking that big fella over there,” the tiny man said, and gestured across the classroom. 

The phrase “big fella” was an understatement. The man Korekiyo had been directed to was massive, for lack of a better word. He was incredibly tall, and his shoulders looked like they could be twice the width of Korekiyo’s own. His hair added to his immense silhouette, falling far past his shoulders, and was thick and curly in volume.

Contrasting against his intimidating appearance, however, were his clothes. He wore a trim green suit jacket, it’s buttons strained over his enormous chest. His pants matched in color. His tie was a spring green, and was tucked neatly under his jacket. Most striking, to Korekiyo at least, were big round glasses slipping down his nose and framing striking red eyes. 

“Well? Are you gonna?” the wiry man next to Korekiyo said. He’d forgotten the other was even there; he’d been staring. Without another word, he crossed the classroom.

Korekiyo approached the taller man, feeling an odd spark when their eyes met. He was very handsome. 

After a beat, he asked, “Sorry to bother, but do you know if Gonta Gokuhara is in this class?”

The man’s red eyes widened, and his expression broke into an open mouthed smile. “Ah, that’s Gonta’s name- Gonta Gokuhara!

The world stopped. Korekiyo’s gaze was stuck in place, right on Gonta’s.  _ Gonta’s.  _ He was staring his soulmate dead in the eyes. 

Then, the feeling started. A buzzing, overwhelming golden yellow, starting in the pit of his gut and reaching outwards until he could barely breathe, barely think. His vision tunnelled, his knees weakened. It was sunshine on his pale skin, butterflies in the cavities of his heart, brushes through his-

The bell rang, ripping the moment away. Gonta opened his mouth to say something, but at the sound of the teacher’s footsteps clicking in, he simply nodded and hurried to a seat. Korekiyo tried his best to do the same. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SO EXCITED 2 B WRITING THIS HELLO


	4. Acquainting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 😎

In all honesty, Korekiyo had  _ no idea  _ what he was expecting. It wasn’t like he had a preference; for years he had barely been the type to even think about romance. Until recently, he had just switched that part of his brain off. 

But even then, everything about Gonta was taking Korekiyo off guard. He was so big and tall— Kiyo had always imagined his soulmate to be shorter than he was. And, he was handsome, and dressed so nicely, which also made Kiyo feel unsteady. It felt unfair, that he was fated to fall in love with someone so infinitely more upstanding and attractive.

And yet, Gonta has this sort of wildness to him, the way he kept looking around the classroom and kicking his feet in and out from under his chair; feet which were very much bare, to Korekiyo’s horror. He was so enticing to look at and study. Korekiyo couldn’t keep his eyes off him. 

It seemed the same was true for Gonta, who kept peeking over his shoulder and absorbing Korekiyo with his eye before looking away again. Once, their eyes met, and Gonta went red and smiled before quickly looking down at his desk.

The class went by surprisingly quickly, and so did the next. 

For the following couple weeks, the swell of new input was enough to keep Korekiyo entirely distracted. The halls were always constantly busy, allowing him to- not  _ follow _ others around, per se, but to observe them for extended periods of time. In addition, his research lab was immaculately put together, and hosted a wealth of information that he devoted his little free time to exploring. Occasionally, his eyes would land on Gonta during class, igniting a small flutter in the pit of his stomach, but his attention would be diverted just as fast. 

Summer slowly mellowed to autumn, Korekiyo’s favorite time of year. It was the first rainy day of the season, and he had rushed out of class to lunch, in order to sit and watch the downpour to the fullest. The beauty of Hope’s Peak Academy was not lost on Korekiyo. 

The courtyard was an open square at the north end of the academy, allowing for students to have a small patch of sunlight in between the halls. On rainy days, small awnings framed the open sky and protected benches along the walls from the rain. The blueish-greyish sound of water bounced off the flat walls, creating a soothing din. Occasionally, the sun peeked through the clouds, causing the collections of plants to shimmer, their leaves weighed down with water. The environment was quite romantic. It was no wonder so many people met their soulmates here. 

Speaking of soulmates, Gonta sat across the courtyard, slowly eating and looking notably dejected. In the time Korekiyo had known him, he was always cheerful, giving his classes his all. Quirkily, he preferred to run through the halls of the academy, and spent all the time he could in the garden or other small patches of nature scattered around the school grounds. He wasn’t ever one to sulk. 

Tentatively, Korekiyo gathered his things and approached Gonta. He sat beside the giant, feeling equal to him despite their considerable difference in size. 

“Uh- hello,” Gonta greeted. Kiyo thought he had plenty of space, but Gonta scooted over a couple inches regardless. 

“Greetings. I was wondering if I could sit here, and possibly ask you what happened? Pardon my assumption, but you seem to be upset.” 

Gonta sighed, dejectedly kicking his feet. “Gonta was working in the field last weekend, ‘cause it’s been more humid. Looking for bugs. He tripped, hurt his back bad,” he explained. “Now, it’s rainy, but Gonta can’t even collect new bugs! So, he feel grumpy.” As he spoke, his fingers ghosted over the terrarium he carried strapped over his shoulder, now empty. 

Korekiyo frowned. “Working in the field?”

“Yeah! Gonta hate the indoors. Sometimes he has to write stuff, but he likes studying in nature much better. At home, he would even do pinning and dissections outside, but he not wanna scare other students…” He fidgeted with the sleeve of his blazer, clearly wanting to talk more, but waiting for Korekiyo to give a cue he was open to more discussion. 

Korekiyo nodded, a vague _keep going_ , while looking at Gonta’s blazer. A couple spots along the edge of the sleeve were worn and fraying, which seemed to be the places Gonta rubbed the fabric between his fingers. The blazer itself looked comfortable and well loved, and a bit snug on Gonta. Patches along the inside layer were sewn up and repaired. A tiny bumblebee was embroidered messily into the fabric.   
“You can sew?”, Korekiyo asked suddenly. 

“Gonta not the best, but yes,” the entomologist cheerfully responded. “Can Kiyo?”

“Indeed, I can. Most, if not all of my uniform is custom. I wanted something that felt uniquely me.” 

They fell into silence, populated only by the sound of rain pattering on the courtyard floor. The area was clear of students besides them; free period must’ve begun. During that time, students were allowed most anywhere on campus, so Kiyo didn’t bother moving. Instead, he took out the small lunch he’d packed for himself, and enjoyed it, though always conscious of the large warmth beside him. Neither of them seemed to know what to say. Strangely, the silence was comfortable. 

After a while of enjoying the moment, Korekiyo turned to Gonta and asked, “I’m sure I have some books relating to entomology and anthropology in my research lab, if you’d like to come with me?”

Not a moment after those words had left Kiyo’s mouth, Gonta leaned forward and rushedly asked, “Would Kiyo wanna go with Gonta to dinner sometime?”

They froze and stared at each other. Red blush rose on Gonta’s tanned cheeks, and Kiyo felt his face heat up an equal amount. The moment was broken by a swollen drop of water falling from the awning above and splattering across Gonta’s nose. He softly giggled, and Kiyo followed suit, chuckling and wiping the water off Gonta’s face with the back of his bandaged hand. 

“I’d love to sometime, although this does seem a bit sudden,” Kiyo smiled. 

“Gonta been meaning to ask for a while,” Gonta responded, awkwardly playing with a strand of his hair. “He never found the right time.”

Korekiyo stood, and grinned, his smile clear even from behind his mask. “My offer to accompany in my lab still stands,” he declared. 

Gonta leapt to his feet, smiling equally brightly. He never smiled with his teeth together, Kiyo noticed. 

“Gonta follow. You lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMSO SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING FOR SO LONG !!! w my cosplay and school stuff i've been so fucking busy, plus i've mostly shifted special interests into jjba ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ but i promise this fic will have a clean and done ending !! i love u all, dont forget to check out my twitters @_sunsgone and @gontathoughts

**Author's Note:**

> i post art and cosplay on my instagram @sunsgone follow Or Else


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